1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to information processing apparatuses, information processing methods, and programs. More particularly, the present invention relates to a technique used in printing of data using pre-printed sheets at specific pages during bookbinding.
2. Description of the Related Art
Forms or the like are sometimes printed using pre-printed sheets. Pre-printed sheets are often used at specific pages of a print job. There are known methods for specifying pages that a user wants to use pre-printed sheets. A printer may include a specific sheet feeding cassette in which the pre-printed sheets are set. Pre-printed sheets are often fed from a manual feed tray.
An improvement related to printers permits bookbinding printing to be readily performed. The number of users who wants to carry out bookbinding printing at the time of creation of forms, such as insurance forms, for example, is increasing.
To meet the increasing demand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-155846 proposes a printing apparatus. The printing apparatus proposed detects whether print data matches a type of pre-printed sheet on which the print data is to be printed and controls a print start position of the pre-printed sheet for each type of pre-printed sheet. The printing apparatus sends a pre-printed sheet identifier with spooled print data. If the pre-printed sheet identifier matches data set in a print start position storage table, the printing apparatus determines the print start position on the basis of the print start position storage table.
However, when pre-printed sheets are used at specific pages, the printing apparatus proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-155846 may encounter some complications. Accordingly, bookbinding printing is difficult.
When an A4-size document is set at the time of bookbinding printing, A3-size sheets are generally used in order not to change the size of each page. In this case, A4-size pre-printed sheets are not used.
FIG. 3A shows an example of an A3-size pre-printed sheet 301. The pre-printed sheet 301 has an A4-size area 303 including a previously printed background image on the right side. In such a case, it is difficult to realize bookbinding printing shown in FIG. 3B using the pre-printed sheet 301 shown in FIG. 3A.
It is difficult for users to determine a position (front-right side, front-left side, back-right side or back-left side) of the pre-printed sheet on which each page is printed in bookbinding printing if the number of pages of a job varies. A lateral view of a bound printed material 302 shown in FIG. 3B will now be described. For example, page 9 is printed on the right side of the front side of a second sheet.
As described above, since an actual position of a sheet where each page is printed is determined in a complex manner, it is difficult for users to determine the position. There are different types of pre-printed sheets that may be used for each job. Therefore, the users have to select the appropriate pre-printed sheet for every print job, which may require a lot of time.
The printing apparatus proposed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 6-155846 can adjust a print position of a pre-printed sheet. However, the printing apparatus has difficulty related to bookbinding printing.